Vireo gilvus
Status: Common regular spring and fall migrant statewide. Common regular breeder east and east-central, uncommon west-central and west.
Documentation: Specimen: UNSM ZM6789, 26 Apr 1901 Lancaster Co.
Taxonomy: AOS split the former Warbling Vireo into two species based on a proposal by Cicero (2025) noting the two groups differ in several ways including morphology, genetics, song, molt, migration, and response to brood parasitism (Chesser et al 2025).
Eastern Warbling-Vireos are monotypic (AviList 2025); the breeding range extends from south-central Alberta south to Louisiana and east to Maine and North Carolina.
It is not known whether Eastern Warbling-Vireos and Western-Warbling-Vireos hybridize in Nebraska.
Spring: gilvus: Apr 20, 20, 21 <<<>>> summer (east, central); Apr 26, 27, 27 <<<>>> summer (west)
An earlier date is 14 Apr 2012 Dodge Co.
A study by Jorgensen and Brenner (2024) found that spring arrival dates had advanced by five days from 1938 to 2024.
- High counts: 100+ at Twin Lakes, Lancaster Co, 6 May 2000, 84 at Fontenelle Forest, Sarpy Co 12 May 2018, 42 in Furnas Co 29 May 2005, and 40 at Medicine Creek Reservoir, Frontier Co 27 May 2001.
Summer: The breeding range occupies most of the state although its western limits are uncertain. In the north, it summers west to Valentine and Merritt Reservoir SRA, Cherry Co but is rare in the western Sandhills and Panhandle away from the North Platte River Valley, with only two regular locations, the deciduous “oases” at Agate, Sioux Co and Smith Lake WMA, Sheridan Co. The only Pine Ridge reports are at Fort Robinson SHP, Dawes Co 20 May 2015 (Rick Wright, personal communication; vocalizing) and 18 Jun 2015, possibly the same individual (eBird.org), although one was at Box Butte Reservoir, Dawes Co 3 Jul 2020.
The above distributional information suggests that there is minimal overlap in breeding season ranges of Eastern Warbling-Vireos and Western Warbling-Vireos in Nebraska; the shortest distances between them appear to be the 80 miles (125 km) from Valentine, Cherry Co to the eastern Pine Ridge and the 35 miles (60 km) from the Pine Ridge to the North Platte River Valley. Nevertheless, recordings of singing birds in the Panhandle and west-central Nebraska are needed to discern the relative breeding distributions of the two subspecies.
Data from BBS routes and eBird show that Warbling Vireos breed statewide, with somewhat lower densities in the Panhandle and the western Sandhills. BBS trend analysis (Sauer et al 2020) shows an average annual increase of 0.97% (95% C.I.; 0.15, 1.81) statewide 1966-2019. Birds identified as Eastern Warbling-Vireos occur regularly west to the Valentine area in Cherry Co in the north and Keith Co in the south, with few reports in the intervening western Sandhills (eBird.org, accessed Sep 2023), although one was at Gordon, Sheridan Co 23 Jun 2024. Bray (1994) stated that the species was not known to breed at NNF Halsey, Thomas Co, where it was a migrant only. Eastern Warbling-Vireo gilvus breeds from Keith Co along the South Platte River Valley well into the eastern plains of Colorado, where it occurs in riparian cottonwood/willow habitat (eBird.org; Leukering and Mlodinow 2017). Two were at Lake Ogallala, Keith Co 24 Jul 2016 and one was “told by song” near Ogallala, Keith Co 15 Jun 2017.
- Breeding Phenology:
Nest building: 8 May-4 Jun
Eggs: 3-19 Jun - Nestlings: 17 Jun
Fledglings: 29 Jun-28 Jul
Fall: summer <<<>>> Sep 29, 29, 30 (east, central); summer <<<>>> Sep 20, 21, 22 (west)
Later dates in the east and central are 3 Oct 2020 Buffalo Co, 5 Oct 2022 Sarpy Co, 6 Oct 2021 Webster Co, 7 Oct 2021 Lancaster Co, 8 Oct 2015 Douglas Co, 9 Oct 2021 Knox Co, 10 Oct 2015 Merrick Co, 13 Oct 1934 Webster Co (Ludlow 1935), and one extremely late that was banded at Neale Woods NC, Douglas Co 17 Nov 2001 (Betty Grenon and Craig Hensley, personal communication).
Later dates in the west are 25 Sep 2008 banded Scotts Bluff Co, 27 Sep 2021 Kimball Co, 27 Sep 2024 Kimball Co, and 1 Oct 2021 (2) Fort Robinson SP, Dawes Co.
A banding record of interest is of a Warbling Vireo banded 20 May 1979 at Norfolk, Madison Co, Nebraska and recovered in Guatemala, where this species winters, 8 Oct 1982.
- High counts: 67 at Schuyler, Colfax Co 7 Sep 2014, 50 in Dakota Co 6 Sep 2014, 17 at Ponca SP, Dixon Co 2 Sep 2018, and 17 at Conestoga Lake, Lancaster Co 8 Sep 2024.
Images
Abbreviations
AOS: American Ornithological Society
AOU: American Ornithologists’ Union
BBS: Breeding Bird Survey
NACC: North American Classification Committee
NC: Nature Center
NNF: Nebraska National Forest
SHP: State Historical Park
SP: State Park
SRA: State Recreation Area
UNSM: University of Nebraska State Museum
WMA: Wildlife Management Area (State)
WTP: Water Treatment Plant
Literature Cited
American Ornithologists’ Union [AOU]. 1957. The AOU Check-list of North American birds, 5th ed. Port City Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
American Ornithologists’ Union [AOU]. 1998. The AOU Check-list of North American birds, 7th ed. Allen Press Inc., Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
AviList Core Team, 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025.
Bray, T.E. 1994. Habitat utilization by birds in a man-made forest in the Nebraska Sandhills. Master’s thesis, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Bruner, L., R.H. Wolcott, and M.H. Swenk. 1904. A preliminary review of the birds of Nebraska, with synopses. Klopp and Bartlett, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Chesser, T.R., S.M. Billerman, K.J. Burns, C. Cicero, J.L. Dunn, B.E. Hernández-Baños, R.A. Jiménez, O. Johnson, N.A. Mason, P.C. Rasmussen. 2025. Sixty-sixth supplement to the American Ornithological Society’s Check-list of North American Birds, Ornithology, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukaf015
Cicero, C. 2025. Treat Warbling Vireo Vireo gilvus as two species. NACC proposal 2025-C-3.
Jorgensen, J.G., and S.J. Brenner. 2024. The changing spring migration patterns of selected bird species in Nebraska 1938-2024. Joint Report of the Nongame Bird Program at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Audubon Great Plains, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
LeFever, J. 2014. Checklist S19659130: Chadron SP–Banding Station Area, Dawes County, Nebraska, US. eBird.org, accessed 4 Jun 2018.
Leukering, T., and S.G. Mlodinow. 2017. Selected Bird Subspecies of Interest in Colorado: Part 1. Colorado Birds 51: 154-169.
Ludlow, C.S. 1935. A quarter-century of bird migration records at Red Cloud, Nebraska. NBR 3: 3-25.
Phillips, A.R. 1991. The known birds of North and Middle America. Part 2. Published by the author, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Sauer, J.R., W.A. Link, and J.E. Hines. 2020. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Analysis Results 1966 – 2019: U.S. Geological Survey data release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P96A7675.
Sibley, C.G., and B.L. Monroe, Jr. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Tallman, D.A., D.L. Swanson, and J.S. Palmer. 2002. Birds of South Dakota. Midstates/Quality Quick Print, Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2025. Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 16 Aug 2025